![]() New York is somehow never and always the same. They'll discover institutions that feel timeless, but are destined to be quite temporary. It's some new generation's place to come of age. If you live in NYC long enough, you will have the experience of "vanishing New York", in which the places that hold your memories of the city inexorably close, and the friends you made shuffle off to other places. For a time, my two siblings and I all lived in the same Brooklyn neighborhood. But your reward is the survivor's pride and the right to imbibe from one of the richest anthropological pools on the planet. You learn to endure countless indignations from a city that bends to no person's will. When you move to NYC, you are forced to adapt to a completely different environment and way of life from every other place in America. I moved there for grad school, and once the city grabs you, it holds on tight. Well, she dumped me, but somehow, I was the one who ended up building my life in NYC. What could possibly be so special about it? She loved it more than me, and it made me resent the city even more than I did already. ![]() Incollege, I fell in love with a girl who was obsessed with NYC. Like most Chicagoans, I was aware that we were Second City, in reference to NYC, but felt no sense of deference to it. I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, steeped in the lore of that city. It's constantly changing, but always the same. The city, itself, feels like an old friend. Yesterday, I visited the city I used to live and work in for only the second time since my office closed in 2020 to visit some of my old friends.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |